Grains of Golden Sand
by Ren Apple
Summary: He was ordered to betray the ones he loved most. Now, he must fight for what he has left. GaaSasu ON HIATUS.


**Title**: Grains of Golden Sand  
**Author**: Ren Apple  
**Pairing**: GaaSasu  
**Warning**: Yaoi, Mature Themes, Death  
**Rating**: R

**Summary**: He was ordered to betray the ones he loved most. Now, he must fight for what he has left.

**Author's** **Note**: Still not beta-ed, edited again. Blame Kishimoto, he inspires me. I love to mutilate his work. Yell, scream, gasp in awe, I would love to know what you think. I don't what I am doing with this story anymore, I apologize. I don't even know if I am fully coming back to fandom but I wanted to write.

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**Chapter One: Time Stands Still  
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The base was dank with the smell of deep earth and the walls dripped water from small crevices in the ceiling. Crates lay overturned and broken, along with his haphazardly packed satchel. His bed was unmade, but hours from now it would not matter. He stood by the door, waiting.

Sasuke blinked the Sharingan away, taking a deep breath. His thoughts were a chaotic haze, weighing heavily upon his shoulders. Three years had past since he had left to follow the last of the legendary Sannin, Orochimaru. Many would believe him a pliable tool filled with only desperation to avenge his clan and kill his brother, but he would never willingly sacrifice his body and mind for power. Under the Sandaime's orders and sworn to secrecy he was to infiltrate the Hidden Village of Sound by _any_ means necessary. He was to draw no unwanted attention to himself and to follow all orders beneficial to his village. Unfortunately, no one could know of his deception except the necessary operatives. And it stung, that of all the people he wished to be notified: Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi, his real family, could not be.

A brief flash of metal glinted, snapping him from his straying thoughts. It was impossible for him to presume how he would be received upon his return. He froze, if he returned. He stalked silently through the halls, his back straight and his body numb. Could Sakura and Naruto forgive him? Could Kakashi? His last memory of the jounin was a blur of innuendos and half made decisions, and he remembered even less about their time spent together as a team. Sasuke clenched his fist tightly around the hilt, blinking away his thoughts. He glanced down at his hands. He had always hated them. Pale and delicate. Uchiha hands. He brushed one through his hair tiredly. Almost time.

Events had passed him by so quickly, it seemed like much more than a few years since he arrived. Nothing was as it seemed in Sound. Horrible screams echoed through the night as children and family members were murdered, raped, and kidnapped for Kabuto's experiments. Pain and suffering of the fellow shinobi was an essential, critical piece to understanding Sound. You quickly learned, only the strong survive.

He snapped to attention as a rush of menace flittered through the air. The closer he was to Orochimaru's quarters the more his malevolent chakra suffocated the air around him. The Snake needed his body now. It was time to keep the agreement for which Sasuke had spent almost three years of his life preparing for. He could sense Orochimaru merely a hundred meters away. He reminded himself repeatedly to breathe.

Out of sight, he watched Kabuto leave the room, murmuring under his breath. Sasuke frowned, stepping out of the shadows. He stood in front of a large wooden door, slowly building up his chakra. No time.

Orochimaru sat up quickly, as wood splintered and a burst of elemental chakra composed in a straight shot of lightning attacked him. He protected his arms in a layer of chakra in front of his body. "Who's there?" He shouted, as sweat beaded down his forehead. The door combusted inwards, and Sasuke stood arm forward attack still connected, his sword sheathed behind his back.

Orochimaru's purple silk kimono draped less than modestly across his body, and the sick stench of decaying flesh permeated the room. He opened his mouth, his long inhuman tongue slithering out to lick around his pale lips. "Good evening, Sasuke-kun. So, it has come to this after all."

Sasuke had sworn to avenge his clan, the curse seal spread across his skin like a scorching fire. He nodded curtly, Sharingan blazing. "There is nothing left you can teach me." He pressed his thumb on the hilt of his sword, pulling it away from the scabbard, the release of the sword making an almost inaudible 'click'.

Orochimaru gave the room an exaggerated glance with a sardonic smile gracing his lip, ignoring the blood dripping down the deep gashes through his forearms. "Trying to redecorate?" He laughed. "Do you truly think you can defeat me, boy?"

"Orochimaru, you are weaker than me. There is no point in sacrificing my body anymore to a weaker _vessel_."

His smile faltered, but quickly reasserted itself. "Big words from the leftover Uchiha."

Sasuke let a lazy smirk cross his lips, as he looked Orochimaru over. "If I had not been so weak I would never have sought you out would I?" Sasuke knew the Sannin could not grant his wish, he was weak. He was a walking corpse of his own ambition. A husk of his formal self and he would not allow this _vermin_ the right of his vengeance. "Pathetic." Every pore on his body pulsed as the blue chakra was channeled from his core outwards.

"Why Sasuke-kun, you are so cruel." Orochimaru voice purred mockingly, like peroxide into a fresh, open wound. "Is this for Konoha? For your Kakashi-sensei and your Naruto-kun?" Sasuke winced, and he grinned maliciously. "You stupid child, do you truly believe they would accept you back?"

Sasuke chuckled darkly, "It is not about them. This is about me, _Snake_, and you only wanted me because you couldn't handle Itachi. But you could never handle the power of the Sharingan. You claim to seek immortality, saturating your body in chemicals, transferring bodies, but your methods are pointless. Do you even have a goal anymore? You claim to seek the reason behind existence. Yet, all you do is make excuses for playing with people's lives. Disgusting, but the truth of the matter is that you are scared of die-"

Orochimaru cut him off, "Scared? I am the Great Serpent Sannin! I am-"

"Your weakness is plain for all to see." He spat. "You can not fool these eyes."

Orochimaru growled, sweat beading down his forehead. He pushed more chakra throughout his coils, and his body morphed into his true form. His head and body elongated, paling, and his hair receded until a large white snake composed with smaller scales of snakes making up its entire body stood, coiling around the room in his place.

Sasuke scoffed. "So this is your true body, Orochimaru, a scaly, white serpent. Did you want to take over others' bodies so badly, you experimented on your own? You sicken me."

Orochimaru glared, before giving him a fanged smile. "Now, now, where are your manners, Sasuke-kun? Children these days so quick to temper! Be still, you don't have to worry. Your strong will to kill Itachi will remain within me. You will not lose everything. Come, Sasuke-kun, and give me your body!" Orochimaru lunged, the world swimming as the two figures moving faster than the human eye could see danced back and forth from and on every corner of the room.

Sasuke felt the air shift to his left, and he jumped into the air. Barely escaping Orochimaru's head rushing by his side. He heard a snapping sound, he looked around the room wildly. He gasped, struggling as he felt two hard, smooth bodies slither around his neck and waist. Black spots danced across his vision, and he struggled to lift is arms. He snarled, and charged his body with Chidori. The snakes released him, and he flipped into the air, quickly severing their heads.

Sasuke pulled the rope from around his waist, and shrugged his shoulders forcing his shirt fall. The curse seal pulsed, quickly consuming his pale skin in a layer of thick, black ink. His eyes only widened slightly, as the burning of the seal turned his irises pale gold and the black from his skin spread into the whites of his eyes. Sasuke shook his long, bone white mane, "Though a snake may dream of flying through the sky, he is doomed forever to crawl on his belly."

Orochimaru hissed angrily, and his scales sprung from his body fully forming into snakes. The snakes wrapped Sasuke in a tight cocoon and squeezed. Orochimaru began to laugh. "What sublime rhetoric, but it is wasted upon-"

Sasuke was panicking. He could not suffocate. If he lost his last shred of consciousness it would be over. The mission. His revenge. Everything he lived for. He gasped, wings springing forth from his back "No!"

Sasuke's hands trembled slightly, but he held firm. "e flapped his wings, liberating them from the blood. He was having trouble breathing. This was his chance, his only chance, and Sasuke blurred, red covering his vision. Orochimaru slumped to the floor, his upper body separated from his lower half. Blood flowed freely across the room, as Sasuke stared into Orochimaru's own slitted, yellow orbs. Sasuke wiped his cheek feeling the thick wetness of blood, but it was of no consequence. His curse seal receded, "Is that all you have, Orochimaru? Is that all the strongest of the legendary three can offer in battle?"

Sasuke froze.

Orochimaru turned his head, breathing heavily. "Finally feeling the effects are we? Amusing little detail about white snakes, Sasuke-kun, they can even taint the air around them with their paralyzing venom. Ku ku ku, did you really believe a little whelp like you could defeat me? I am immortal!"

-

Sasuke stood in a field of ever lasting darkness, the ground writhing beneath his feet and small limbs coiling and climbing along his legs. Mounds of flesh surrounded him, rippling across the ground, perversions of bodies twisting in pain. He kicked his legs, freeing himself from the arms imprisoning him. "What is this place?"

The flesh struggled and thrashed, and Sasuke could not discern any type of body part. He tried to draw his sword, only to find an empty scabbard at his side. "Orochimaru!"

"So impatient, Sasuke-kun. We are in an alternate dimension inside of this form, where I carry out the soul transfer ritual." Orochimaru laughed, "And it has already started."

A flesh hand grabbed Sasuke, pulling him to ground. He struggled, but more were wrapping around his body, he felt them expanding and contracting covering him from head to toe under their weight. The tomoes of his Sharingan whirled quickly around his irises, quickly connecting and disconnecting. He could not pull free, his body refused to respond. He could see the souls used before him, quiet and trapped in a never ending sleep.

Orochimaru was covered under the same weight, but Orochimaru continued to walk forward with ease. "Those eyes," he spoke with a tinge of hysteria, "they will be mine!"

-

Kabuto closed the laboratory door, "The medicine is not enough anymore. At best he could have lasted until tomorrow, but he needs to do the soul transfer today." As he trekked back to Orochimaru's room, the lanterns on the walls flickered in tandem. "Who would have thought Sasuke-kun would be so quick to say 'yes'?" He smirked.

He heard a scream, alarmed he ran towards to the room. The hall was unnaturally silent. Blood splattered on the wall outside of the doorway and onto the floor. He heard a quiet thump of a body hitting the ground. Kabuto's eyes widened and he charged a small amount of chakra into his fingertips. He crouched back to the wall, and glanced over his shoulder into the room. Sweat beads ran down his forehead, and he held his breath.

Sasuke's form stood in the middle of the room loosely handling the Kusanagi. Orochimaru's large snake body wrapped around the ground lifelessly, still bleeding. "The giant snake's molting… The ritual is over already?" He rose slowly from the wall, still channeling his chakra, and walked into the room. "What the hell happened?"

Sasuke's form turned towards him, "Kabuto?"

His fingers twitched, "Which one are you?"

Sasuke's form walked past him out of the room and came to a stop, so they stood back to back. "Which one do you think?" He stabbed the Kusanagi through Kabuto. Sasuke pulled the sword vertically across his torso and through his side.

Kabuto gasped, clutching his side as blood poured through his fingers. "Orochimaru-sama is dead? Wait- It was you! You were the informant!"

Sasuke turned to Kabuto, "Yes."

Kabuto looked up growling. Sasuke met his eyes, Sharingan spinning. Kabuto was lost in a sea of red. "Watch Kabuto, as he attacks and fails. Against these eyes, all his jutsu, even his own dimension fall apart. Watch him beg, as my will destroys his destiny. Watch your master fail."

Kabuto screamed.

Sasuke grabbed his chin, bringing them eye to eye. Sasuke looked down at him mercilessly, blood from scrapes and burns soaking through his clothing. "Listen to me, Kabuto." Muddled eyes snapped up to him dazed, slowly beginning to clear. "You will not die, but only because I allow you to live. What you witnessed today," Sasuke curved his lips into a parody of a smile before turning away, "is only the beginning."

Kabuto did nothing. He could do nothing. Neither of his limbs would move and the muscles were twitching with pain at the effort. His chakra was depleted, focused only on healing the poisonous wound that nearly bisecting him. He could not even open his mouth to protest Sasuke leaving the room without a glance in his direction.

Fires blazed and screams roared from every corner of the underground village. Blood enveloping the night in the horrible stench of death as the Avenger rang out his justice. In later days the slaughter would become known as the Sound Massacre. In Sasuke's mind it was the day the Uchiha lived.

Not a soul realizes how much sound there is in silence.


End file.
